Colorado football coaches received the 13th oral commitment from a prospect in the 2013 recruiting class Friday, all the major recruiting services reported.
Athlete Devin Ross from Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, Calif., is listed as a three-star cornerback by both Rivals.com and Scout.com but he was recruited to CU to play wide receiver. He is the third receiver in the class, joining fellow California prep stars Bryce Bobo and Elijah Dunston. Ross is the seventh player in the class from California.
“This whole off-season, I’ve been building a really good relationship with the coaches,” Ross told Scout.com. “I’ve been checking out online and I like the way it looks. I also have a friend that goes there and I have a friend that just committed there (Mitch Parsons), and he told me it was beautiful out there. And I like that it’s a part of the Pac-12.”
It’s only early August but CU coaches don’t appear to have much work left to do in the 2013 recruiting cycle, which ends on national signing day, the first Wednesday in February.
According to scholarship numbers released by the program at Pac-12 media day two weeks ago, there will be 80 scholarship players on the roster when fall camp begins Monday.
If wide receiver Peyton Williams (knee injury) and defensive lineman Kisima Jagne (academics) are able to enroll and join the program the number will rise to 82.
The program has just eight scholarship seniors this season, the second lowest total in the past 50 years at CU and the third fewest seniors of any Football Bowl Subdivision team in the nation.
No program can have more than 85 scholarship players on the roster at any time.
Assuming the number for CU remains at 80 this fall and eight are subtracted when the season ends, that would leave the program at 72 scholarships with 13 to give heading into the new year.
However, CU would have either two members of the 2012 class to add in January because they are delaying their enrollment.
Offensive lineman Gerrad Kough and defensive lineman Derek McCartney have already decided to grayshirt this fall.
If Williams sits out because of his injury and Jagne sits out because of academics but gets himself eligible during the fall with a qualifying test score, that would give the program four grayshirts to add in January. Two of those four scholarships could be counted back toward 2012.
CU is free to sign more players than it has scholarships available, but some of those players would have to delay their enrollment until 2014.
Coach Jon Embree said earlier this year that he expects to sign between 15 and 20 prospects in the 2013 class.
Regardless of how the numbers ultimately work out, this season will be the first in a long time at CU that coaches won’t have to worry about filling a recruiting class. Instead they can focus more attention on protecting the recruits who have committed and coaching the team.
